It is customary for food processors to vacuum package bulky food articles such as whole muscle meat products, brick cheese and poultry in shrink bags. The processor loads the food article into the bag and evacuates the bag to collapse it about the food product. The bag is sealed, while in its evacuated condition, by gathering the open end and applying a metal clip or by heat sealing. The sealed bag then is passed through a hot water bath or hot air tunnel to shrink the sealed bag about the food product. Shrinking the bag in this fashion closely conforms the bag to the contour of the food product thereby making an attractive, generally wrinkle-free package.
One problem related to a shrink bag package containing a turkey or other large food items is that the resulting food package is bulky, relatively heavy, possibly frozen, and difficult to manually grasp and lift. Therefore it is desirable to provide a carrying handle to facilitate handling the food product package. For this purpose a separate handle is attached to the package at the clip closure or the package is inserted into a netting which is gathered and clipped to provide a carrying handle. Both arrangements add to the packaging costs.
Preferably, the handle should be formed integral with the shrink bag to avoid the added expense and processing steps of attaching a handle to the food product package. For poultry packaging, a handle located at the tail of the bird is preferred as this leaves the area of the package over the breast area of the bird free to receive printed information such as a decorative design, corporate logo or other identifying product information. Also, a handle at the tail of the bird provides a desirable weight distribution in that the heavier breast portion of the bird is carried below the lighter tail portion.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,555,025 discloses a shrink bag package having an integral handle. The bag package is formed of a so called "extended lip bag" wherein one bag panel extends beyond the open bag end. The handle is formed in the extended lip portion by punching a hot die through the lip to provide an opening having a fused bead extending continuously about the opening. Upon heat shrinking to form the bag package, the extended lip portion of the bag undergoes an unrestrained free-shrink so it thickens and forms a handle which protrudes longitudinally from the resulting package.
One disadvantage of the resulting package as disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 4,555,025 is that only a single ply of heat shrunk film supports the entire weight of the bag package. Also, there is no defined, predetermined form to the handle because it is formed totally by free-shrink of the film.
Co-pending U.S. Pat. No. 5,120,553 discloses a shrinkable bag wherein the integral handle forming portion is located adjacent a preclosed end of the bag. This arrangement allows formation of a bag package wherein a double ply of the shrunk film supports the weight of the bag package so the handle is less likely to tear under the weight of the bag package.
While a shrink bag as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,120,553 provides an acceptable bag package having an integral handle, further improvements are desirable to enhance the bag package for retail sale. For example, in general, handles formed by heat shrinking plastic film tend not to have a distinct and well defined handle-shape appearance. Heat shrinking to form the handle as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,120,553 draws the handle forming portion tight against the bag package so the handle is not a prominent and recognizable feature of the bag package and may be inconvenient for grasping and lifting the bag package.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a shrink bag package having an integral handle which is formed of shrink film material and which is a prominent and well defined feature of the bag.
Another object is to provide a shrink bag package having an integral self-supporting handle portion formed of shrink film material.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a shrink bag package having a prominent, well defined handle portion integral an end of the package and formed of shrink film material, including a self-supporting hand grip which is spaced out from the bag package and is turned so as to present a flat gripping surface and is connected to the package by a double ply of shrink film material.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a shrink film packaging method which forms a food product-containing package having a prominent, well defined handle portion integral an end of the package.